Green burst Tele - WIP

Megatron

Junior Member
Messages
90
Hi all!
Started my build today. Hit my first (and hopefully only!) roadblock: I can't get the black+white+ground neck pickup wires through the wiring channel to connect to the blade switch. I've taped them together so they move as one wire. I've been able to feed through a single covered wire and even tried to subsequently use floss to try pull the 3 pickup wires through, but no luck. The bundle of 3 wires is just not able to make the turn down to the body cavity.

I've also stumbled across this useful thread suggesting I get abrasive cord and work the channel a bit:
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/problem-with-wire-channel.651818/

Ideas?

Thanks!
 
Could you pull one wire thru at a time with string?
 
Alright! Body is assembled!

Neck pickup is a Dimarzio True Velvet T and the bridge is an Air Classic.

I'm using a wiring diagram that I found online that is supposed to present a 250k pot for the single coil neck pickup and 500k pot for the bridge humbucker. This is achieved via a single resistor

I started off wiring the 3-way blade switch and PRS 500k pots (with that buttery smooth taper). I did it on a cardboard template to preserve the layout so the harness could be dropped in easily.

Then I tried to insert the neck pickup wires into the wiring channel, and it wouldn't go through. Due to the braiding on the wire, and the rough sides of the wire channel, the wire just got caught. Also, there is a 90 degree bend that made it almost impossible to push a single wire through. Anyway, I eventually found out that this isn't a new problem for Warmoth Tele bodies with chambered bodies and lam tops, and some folks suggested using abrasive cord (here: https://www.tdpri.com/threads/problem-with-wire-channel.651818/). I ordered it, but I was determined to get those wires through today. I tried a lot of approaches. The one that worked: I fed in a piece of wire with 3 pieces of floss attached to it (this was hard enough). Now that all 3 pieces of floss spanned the channel, I tied each floss end to one of the 3 neck pickup wires, and, through some trial and error and floss breakage, got all wires through!

Plugged it into my EHX 5mm pedal amp, turned up the volume and tapped a spoon on the pickups to ensure everything has been wired correctly. So far so good!

So, the wire routing took me hours to complete. I'm not sure why the wiring channel was so rough or narrow. Definitely a pain point and would be nice to see this fixed on future Warmoth bodies. For example, instead of drilling a hole from the pickup cavity to meet the wire channel, the CNC machine could rout the channel all the way into the pickup cavity, ensuring it would be both smooth and wide enough.

Anyway, I think the finished body looks absolutely amazing. Somehow the flames pop even more now. Can't wait to attach the neck and take it for a spin. I'm especially eager to see if the resistor in the circuit does its job as expected.
 

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Build complete! After 6 months of collecting all the parts, it feels great to finally play this instrument and see what it sounds like!

Officially my first build where I assembled everything, including all the electronics soldering based on a wiring diagram.

I used hipshot tuners because I didn't feel like drilling. Bolted on the neck, strung it up, and it's great!

I'm not sure if it's the chambered body construction, but it has such a full acoustic sound (not plugged in). Perfect for midnight strumming. Note, I've added a picture to this post showcasing the cross-sectional mahogany grain pattern which I think looks pretty cool.

I chose low output pickups, so I'm experimenting with pickup height to make sure I get the right amount of sizzle/roar when I want it. Definitely not as hot as the only other humbuckers I play which are Gibson 57 Classics, so time for me to experiment with a new sound. Note that I went with PRS pots on Aaron's suggestion from one of the Warmoth videos, and the smooth taper is just perfect (Feels exactly like my old Ibanez Prestige).

Hoping to submit this for a guitar of the month soon. Thanks for the great community support and resources!
 

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Nice design & build!

it has such a full acoustic sound (not plugged in). Perfect for midnight strumming.

My first build was a chambered mahogany body with rosewood top and in an echo just how good mine sounded, even unplugged. The body adds warmth to the tone that's crystal clear when amplified. I may eventually replace the maple+rosewood neck with a mahogany + rosewood, however most of the tone comes from the body,. so I'm quite content.

About the time I was finishing up that guitar, I ordered an all maple warmoth. I've strung it up just to hear it before digging into all the finish work and it surely produces a brighter tone that  looking forward to hearing all finished!

Congrats on completing such a beautiful axe!



 
Beautiful build.
I love the top's curls pattern on that one; I haven't see any Unique Choice Lam Tops lately that would look remotely as good looking.
 
My thoughts on my custom build after a few weeks of playing it:


I decided to build this guitar for one reason: I wanted a high grade flame maple top on chambered mahogany with a rosewood neck. If nothing else, just for the aesthetics.

So, first off, it is a stunning guitar. Hats off to Warmoth for producing such a beauty. The flame top is definitely very special and probably a rare find. The grade certainly feels like it's up there with PRS wood library tops or Gibson custom shop AAA.

One observation, which I've noted in another forum post, is the chatoyance of the top. I mentioned that it just doesn't sparkle as I expected. I've heard others describe how tops can vary and chatoyance is not guaranteed despite the degree of flame. However, I wanted to bring this up again because when I opened the rear body cavity to insert the electronics, the inside surface of the maple lam top is visible where the 3 way switch is inserted. It is wildly chatoyant from the back. The same spot doesn't sparkle nearly as much from the outside. Both inside and outside have a clear poly finish, which leads me to believe that the dye is what hinders the chatoyance.

By far my favorite feature of the guitar is the weight balance. The chambered mahogany makes the body feel so much lighter, but it's still heavy enough to prevent neck dive. I can perceive a pleasant resonance when I play it acoustically which could be the chambering or wood combination of mahogany and rosewood or string-through-body/bridge. I'm sure every component plays a role. When I compare the acoustic (unplugged) sound of this tele to my roasted maple + roasted alder strat (with a 510 trem), the sound is very different. Relative to the strat, the tele has dramatically more bass.

This is my second warmoth neck. My first has 6100 jumbo frets and this has 6150. I prefer the 6150 size- It allows ample fretting depth, but I'm less likely to go sharp if I fret too hard (especially on the low E). I'm currently playing 8's, so the strings are very flexible. Might switch back to 9's.

I got the neck with vintage/modern construction because I really wanted a one piece rosewood neck (fretboard is part of the same wood blank as the rest of the neck). I much prefer the side-adjust nut on the modern construction, but that's about it. I will note that we recently had a significant drop in temperature and humidity and the neck adjusted significantly. Some of the nuts that hold the tuners in place even loosened, so this was not due to truss rod tension and is a property of the expansion and contraction of the rosewood with changes in humidity. In contrast, the modern construction roasted maple neck on my strat didn't even lose tune. So roasting definitely has its benefits for stability. Roasted rosewood on the horizon, Warmoth? :p

In terms of pickups, I'm not sure how I feel yet. My gold standard sound is my Les Paul with Classic 57 pickups. I absolutely love that tone through JCM800-style architectures like my Dark Gene Green amp or Pal800 pedal. This time, I opted for a tele neck which was traditional in output, and I matched it with an Air Classic in the bridge. The AC is way lower output than I'm used to for a humbucker, so I really have to crank the gain to get a classic rock roar. Not sure it's such a bad thing, just a new sound for me to play with. If anything, I find I'm focusing more on the notes and less on the raging chord harmonics.

Overall, very happy with how this guitar turned out. A new build is always an exciting and fulfilling journey!
 
Megatron said:
My thoughts on my custom build after a few weeks of playing it:

By far my favorite feature of the guitar is the weight balance. The chambered mahogany makes the body feel so much lighter, but it's still heavy enough to prevent neck dive. I can perceive a pleasant resonance when I play it acoustically which could be the chambering or wood combination of mahogany and rosewood or string-through-body/bridge. I'm sure every component plays a role. When I compare the acoustic (unplugged) sound of this tele to my roasted maple + roasted alder strat (with a 510 trem), the sound is very different. Relative to the strat, the tele has dramatically more bass.

I got the neck with vintage/modern construction because I really wanted a one piece rosewood neck (fretboard is part of the same wood blank as the rest of the neck). I much prefer the side-adjust nut on the modern construction, but that's about it. I will note that we recently had a significant drop in temperature and humidity and the neck adjusted significantly. Some of the nuts that hold the tuners in place even loosened, so this was not due to truss rod tension and is a property of the expansion and contraction of the rosewood with changes in humidity. In contrast, the modern construction roasted maple neck on my strat didn't even lose tune. So roasting definitely has its benefits for stability. Roasted rosewood on the horizon, Warmoth? :p


Overall, very happy with how this guitar turned out. A new build is always an exciting and fulfilling journey!

similar experience here,  i chose a heavy wood for core which made it light yet not a nosediver,  my next build if there is one leans towards maple core,  hate to say how green with envy i am of a solid rosewood neck.
 
@Megatron, your build is quite the reverse of my first, a chambered mahogany + rosewood body and maple. My in-progress build is all maple. It will have a different timbre (I strung it up and hooked up a single HB before doing any finishing). It will also be HH pickups as compared to the HSH of my current axe.

I'm glad you're happy with the outcome, I know I'm completely pleased with mine :).

About the chatoyance, I can think of a couple things. The simple one is that the dye blocks all but green wavelength. I wonder how both would look under green light.

The deeper version is that the source of chatoyance is very small structures that are causing diffraction. This came split white into multiple wavelengths, and in some materials will pass or reflect only a specific color. That happens when the structures are in the range wavelength of visible light, 380-720 nanometers. This is also affected by the refractive index of the interface at the diffraction location. Talking about that is beyond my knowledge, however it's why a coating, whether water or varnish enhances the look so much.

Anyway I think if the dye limits the wavelength being affected, then there's less possible effects.

 
Minor update: Initially, I read that using 500K pots with single coils would result in unpleasant harshness. To fix this I included a 470k resistor only seen by the single coil (see wiring diagram above). However my neck pickup was coming out super bassy and the middle position was unusable, so I removed the resistor. Honestly, it sounds perfectly fine with the single coil on a 500k pot. Not sure if it’s just that I’m not sensitive to it or perhaps the mahogany body is somehow darkening the sound. I also removed the treble bleed capacitor from the volume pot (not shown in my diagram above). Removing both the capacitor and the resistor made the guitar wayyy louder, so I’m not sure if one or both were responsible for killing my signal. Regardless, way happier now. It’s putting out almost as much signal as my Gibson 57s.
 
Have never weighed a guitar before but I recently got a scale and decided to weigh a few of them. This one felt super light so I was particularly curious.

Weighs in at 6lb 13oz.
 
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